God and the nations

"I call heaven and earth to bear witness, that any individual, man or woman, Jew or Gentile, freeman or slave, can have the Holy Spirit bestowed upon him. It all depends on his deeds."
(Shaare Tzedek 60a, 60b)

Pour out your love on the nations who know You

And on kingdoms who call Your name.

For the good which they do for the seed of Jacob

And they shield Your people Israel from their enemies.

May they merit to see the good of Your chosen

And to rejoice in the joy of Your nation.

- 16^th century Haggadah prayer

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (Genesis 9:8-15)

“Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” (Genesis 18:18)

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16)

“Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD. “Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people.” (Zechariah 2:10-11)

Lord, my strength and my fortress,
    my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come 
    from the ends of the earth and say,
‘Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, 
    worthless idols that did them no good.’
Do people make their own gods?
    Yes, but they are not gods!

“Therefore I will teach them—
    this time I will teach them
    my power and might.
Then they will know
    that my name is the Lord.” (Jeremiah 16:19-21)

“All nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.” (Jeremiah 3:17b)

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going’.” And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him. This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you’.” (Zechariah 8:20-23)

This is what the Lord says:

“Maintain justice 
    and do what is right, 
for my salvation is close at hand
    and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
Blessed is the one [gentile] who does this—
    the person who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
    and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”

 Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” 
And let no eunuch complain,
    “I am only a dry tree.”

For this is what the Lord says:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose what pleases me
    and hold fast to my covenant —
to them I will give within my temple and its walls 
    a memorial and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name 
    that will endure forever. 
And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
    to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
    and who hold fast to my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain 
    and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices 
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
    a house of prayer for all nations. ” 
The Sovereign Lord declares—
    he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
    besides those already gathered.”  (Isaiah 56:1-8)

Good and upright is the Lord;

    therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

He guides the humble in what is right
    and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful 
    toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. 
For the sake of your name, Lord,
    forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? 
    He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.
They will spend their days in prosperity, 
    and their descendants will inherit the land. 
The Lord confides in those who fear him;
    he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are ever on the Lord, 
    for only he will release my feet from the snare. (Psalm 25:8-15)

The Lord is near to all who call on him, 
    to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; 
    he hears their cry and saves them. 
The Lord watches over all who love him, 
    but all the wicked he will destroy. (Psalm 145:18-20)

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22)

Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. (Ruth 1:16-17)

The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. (Jonah 3:5)

"And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people [gentiles] who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:11) 

Leviticus 19:33-34 “When a stranger [gentile] sojourns with you in your land [Israel], you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

"Remember the Sabbath day to make it holy. Six days you shall work, and do all your vocation. But the seventh day is a Sabbath for the Lord your God; you shall not do in it any kind of vocation, you and your son and your daughter, your servant and your maid and your beast and your sojourner that is within your gates [i.e. righteous gentile]. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and he hallowed it." (Ex. 20:8-11)

“And any man of the House of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them, who eats any blood, I will set My attention upon the soul who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from among his people.” (Leviticus 17:10)

And also to the stranger, who (is) not of Your people Israel, but will come from a far country for the sake of Your Name. For they shall hear of Your great Name, and of Your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm, and he will come and pray toward this house.  (1 Kings 8:41-42)

“I will record Egypt and Babylon

    among those who acknowledge me—

Philistia too, and Tyre , along with Cush,

    and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion’.” (Psalm 87)

In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them. The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance." (Isaiah 18:1-7)

"God will beautify Yafet [one of Noah's sons and the father of the European nation] and he will dwell in the tents of Shem." (Genesis 9:27)

Baruch She'amar

Blessed is He who spoke and the world came into being, blessed is He. Blessed is He who creates the universe. Blessed is He who speaks and acts. Blessed is He who decrees and fulfills. Blessed is He who shows compassion to the earth. Blessed is He who shows compassion to all creatures. Blessed is He who gives a good reward to those who fear Him. Blessed is He who lives for ever and exists to eternity. Blessed is He who redeems and saves. Blessed is His name.

“Even though we see everything as actually being in front of us, every reasonable person knows for certain that all that we see is only within our own brains."

 (Baal HaSulam, “Preface to The Book of Zohar”)

All are his words

If you only listen,

If you only open your heart,

You will begin to see

That He wishes to speak with you,

That He is speaking to you.

Everything that passes

Through your mind and heart

Within you and around you,

Is all His words.

All that you hear,

All that you see,

Are only

Him.

There is nothing,

No people,

No one else.

You are speaking only with Him,

And it is His language.

The world’s appearance,

The sensation of reality,

The sensation of the self,

Are all the Creator

Speaking with you.

"His cheeks are like a bed of roses
As banks of sweet herbs;
His lips are as lilies,
Dropping with flowing myrrh.
His hands are as rods of gold, set with beryl.
His body is as polished ivory, overlaid with sapphires.
His legs are as pillars of marble,
Set upon sockets of fine gold.
His aspect is like Lebanon,
Excellent as the cedars.
His mouth is most sweet.
Yea, He is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem."

 - from Song of Songs

According to one legend, the Song of Songs was given at the waters of the Red Sea parted. Others say that the Song of Songs was given on Mount Sinai, together with the Torah. Both legends suggest that the Song of Songs was authored by God. Rabbi Akiva said, “All the books of the Bible are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.” 

Who or What is God?

According to Rav Nissim Gaon’s Introduction to Talmud, every gentile is commanded to know God. But Who or What is God?

God's name

The Tetragrammaton (the four-letter name of God) is related to the past, present and future tense of the Hebrew word “to be.” In Hebrew, “was” is Hayah, “is” is Hoveh, and “will be” is Yihyeh.

If Ehyeh asher Ehyeh (אהיה אשר אהיה) (Exodus 3:14) is to be represented in full English translation, it could be represented as, "I know Myself by My Personal name I AM". I AM is the knowledge God has of His Personal existence following Creation.

God is One and unlike anything

“Master of the Universe, You are one, but not as a numerical value, You are elevated above all elevated beings, hidden beyond all hidden things, thought cannot grasp you at all. […] No one knows You at all. And besides You there is no Oneness.” (Elijah Began prayer)

“The denial of corporeality means that God is not limited and is neither a body nor a force in a body. The principle of this negation is that God is not limited by either place or time. For He is, was and always will be.” (Sefer Maarekhet ha-Elohut)

God is impossible to comprehend. Since our knowledge of God is limited, the language we use to speak of God is also limited in that it relies on human modes of expression.

God does not have attributes because to have attributes signifies a division between subject and predicate. One cannot even discuss God in terms of positive attributes, such as “God is love”, because our conception of love is limited. Again, to describe God in such a way is to imply that attributes are not intrinsic to God, that they are somehow a value-added extras as they are in man.

Nonetheless, the Tanakh, which speaks in the language of man, tells us that:

God is One and unlike anything (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 40:18).

God is a singular being, with one nature, existing by Himself.

God has no physical form (Deuteronomy 4:15).

God is omnipotent (Psalm 135:6), omnipresent (Numbers 14:21) and omniscient (Proverbs 15:3).

God knows man’s thoughts (1 Chronicles 28:9).

God exists outside of time and is eternal (Isaiah 41:4).

God is infinite (Jeremiah 23:24) and does not change (Malachi 3:6).

He is transcendent (Psalm 115:3; Isaiah 55:8-9) and immanent (Isaiah 6:3). Creation requires God's immanence because He continuously maintains the existence of the universe. Were God to forsake any created being for even one moment, it would revert to a state of utter nothingness.

God is perfect (Psalm 18:30).

God is self-sufficient and self-existent (Exodus 3:13-14; Psalm 50:10-12).

If God is infinite, beyond categorization and without attributes, and man is just the opposite, how can the latter have a relationship with God?

1. The soul of a man comes from God. The soul is infinite and is sometimes referred to as a divine spark (“made in the image of God”). Therefore, man is not wholly foreign to God and can cleave to Him.

2. The First Temple in Jerusalem was a Beit HaMikdash, a sanctuary where God could dwell among the people of Israel. The Third Temple (may it come soon) will be a house of prayer for all nations, not just for the Jews. “The time shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see My Glory” (Isaiah 66:18)

3. God has chosen to restrict and lower His infinite light in order to be closer to us.

There is nothing besides God

In terms of absolute reality, only HaShem exists. There is nothing beside Him. Before creation, HaShem existed alone. The process of creation began when HaShem created a space within himself (Tzimtzum or “contraction”) in order to bequeath it with a sense of independence. This means everything is dependent on God. If HaShem were to stop willing reality into existence, it would immediately cease to exist. Every moment is a brand new moment. As the Baal Shem Tov said, “Even the movement of a single blade of grass occurs because God wills it occur.”  We are encouraged to think of HaShem at all times (Kavanah, “inner intention” or “concentration”).

The hiddenness of God

“You have hidden your face from us.” (Isaiah 64:7)

“He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him--the dark rain clouds of the sky.” (Psalm 18:11)

The Jewish Bible portrays a God who progressively hides Himself from humans. It is thought that God has encircled Himself with dark clouds. Not even the angels know where God is. 

Everything is for the best

Nothing happens randomly or without God’s permission. Everything happens for a reason. “This, too, is for the best,” stated Rabbi Akiva. HaShem never gives us a challenge that we can’t manage. HaShem places increasingly greater obstacles in our spiritual path in order to stimulate our progress. When God tests a person, his intellect and spiritual level are somewhat diminished. This gives the person the opportunity to meet the challenge and achieve a higher state of consciousness. Everything that happens is for the best and is part of HaShem’s grand plan. Life is a conversation with HaShem. The numerical value of the statement, “whatever God does is for the good,” is identical in Hebrew to that of the word “Torah.” Suffering awakens within us a desire to stop the suffering by ending our own egoism and cleaving to God. This is known as d’veykut, which literally means being “glued” to HaShem.

“Baruch dayan emet” means “Blessed is the true Judge.” Just as one blesses God for the good, so he should bless Him for the bad. This is because the bad is also for the good. Bad is only unrevealed good because it originates from the Hidden World. The Hidden World is represented by the first two letters of the Tetragrammaton (i.e. Y,H). That is why it says, "Fortunate is the man who is chastised by yod-he, which alone also spell one of God's names (i.e. Yah). The Revealed World are the last two letters of the Divine Name (i.e. V,H). Suffering is just one way of being close to God. But the person who suddenly find himself depressed or anxious at the most inappropriate times should be aware that this may be a trap of the yetzer hara, intended to bring that person down into a pleasure-seeking state afterwards.

There is nothing to fear but God Himself

Only God is worthy of our fear. All other fears are a distraction or a perversion of this root fear. Indeed, because there is nothing beside God, only God can be the object of fear and anxiety. Fear of God is better described as awe and wonder, resulting in a deep love. Anxiety is really lack of faith in God. If God’s creation is good, then there is nothing to fear. Moreover, if everything is One, then the apparent contradictions and flaws in reality are merely illusions.

God's prayer

Some rabbis in the past have taught that God prays to Himself:

“May it be My will that My mercy overcome My anger, and that My mercy dominate My attributes. May I act toward My children with the attribute of mercy, and go beyond the strict measure of the law.”

The Third Temple

The Third Temple is a future Jewish temple architecturally described in the Book of Ezekiel. In all probability, it will be built on the Temple Mount where the First and the Second Temples once stood. Unfortunately, the Temple Mount has been desecrated by the presence of two pagan shrines: the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.

There are two opinions regarding the building of the Third Temple. One view maintains that it will be built by God and descend from the heavens. Another view maintains that the future Temple will be built by the Messiah.

The Third Temple will fulfill the mission for Israel to be a light unto all the nations. It will be a house of prayer for the whole world.

"And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
    to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
    and who hold fast to my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain 
    and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices 
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
    a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:6-7)

In order to overcome hatred, war and confusion, God will turn the language of the nations into a “pure language” so that all of them will call on the Name of God and pray to Him in the Third Temple. "God will beautify Yafet, and he will dwell in the tents of Shem." (Genesis 9:27). The reference to a pure language (presumably Hebrew) is an echo of the universal language spoken at the time of Babel (Genesis 11:1). This universal language was lost when God confused the tongues of the people, but this same language will be spoken in the messianic era.

The four things that God wishes He hadn’t created are: the Exile of the Jewish people, the Chaldeans (Babylonians), the Ishmaelites (Arabs), and the yetzer hara or evil inclination.